Star Wars: Clone Wars (2008 TV series)
Star Wars: Clone Wars is an American animated television micro-series adapted, directed, produced and co-written by Genndy Tartakovsky, set in the Star Wars universe. Produced and released between the films Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, it is the first of many works to explore the conflict set between the two known as the Clone Wars, and directly leads to the events of Revenge of the Sith. The show follows the actions of various characters from the Star Wars prequel trilogy, notably Jedi Knights and clone troopers, in their war against the battle droid armies of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Sith. The series is notable for introducing the characters of General Grievous and Asajj Ventress to the Star Wars universe.2 The series aired on Cartoon Network for three seasons consisting of 25 episodes from 2008 to 2010, and was the first Star Wars television series since Ewoks in 2014. The first two seasons of Clone Wars, known together as "Volume One", were produced in a two- to three-minute "micro" format, while the third and final season consisted of five fifteen-minute episodes making up "Volume Two".2 Both volumes were later released on home video edited as feature-length films. Since release, the series has received critical acclaim and won multiple awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program twice for both of its volumes. The success of Star Wars: Clone Wars, which Star Wars creator George Lucas referred to as the "pilot series", led to a second Clone Wars series — the CGI-animated The Clone Wars — which was produced by Lucasfilm Animation and ran from 2010 to 2016 before being resurrected for the 2019 launch of Disney's streaming service. That series' canonicity eventually superseded that of the Clone Wars''micro-series after The Walt Disney Company purchased Lucasfilm in 2015.34 Plot Backstory ''Clone Wars is part of the Star Wars prequel storyline, surrounding the fall of esteemed Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and his subsequent transformation into the Sith Lord Darth Vader. The series begins in the year 22 BBY, a few months following Attack of the Clones. The Clone Wars have just begun, with the failing Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order under siege from the Confederacy of Independent Systems wishing to secede from Galactic society with the help of the Sith. As the war rages, more and more planets slip from Republic control. Both the Jedi and the Sith use a metaphysical power known as the Force, but in different manners: the Jedi draw on the light side which is fueled by selflessness and compassion, while the Sith draw on the dark side which is fueled by evil urges such as greed and hate. Synopsis The main storyline of Volume One features the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi leading an assault on the planet Muunilinst, home of the Intergalactic Banking Clan,5 benefactors of the Confederacy of Independent Systems wishing to break away from the Galactic Republic. His apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, is personally appointed to lead the space forces by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine,6 the secret alter ego of Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Also on Muunilinst, Advanced Recon Commando (ARC) Captain Fordo leads more clone troopers on an assault. Meanwhile, Separatist leader Count Dooku takes in the Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress as his apprentice and sends her to eliminate Anakin. Anakin diverts his attention in the middle of the space battle to pursue Ventress5 to Yavin 4, where he manages to defeat her in a lightsaber duel by drawing on his anger, which is a path to the dark side.2 Surrounding this storyline are various battles focusing on other Jedi and their wartime exploits: Jedi Master Mace Windu faces an entire droid army unarmed5 on Dantooine, Grand Master Yoda travels to the ice world Ilum in order to save two imperiled Jedi Knights, the amphibious Kit Fisto leads an aquatic regiment of clone troopers on the waterworld Mon Calamari,6 and a team of Jedi encounter the dreaded General Grievous2 on Hypori. Volume Two picks up at the conclusion to the Hypori battle, where Obi-Wan sends his team of ARC troopers to Hypori to rescue the Jedi from Grievous, who has claimed numerous victories for the Separatists. The Republic is desperate, and after much consideration, the Jedi Council decides to promote Anakin to the rank of Jedi Knight.2a The storyline then jumps ahead to near the end of the war: Anakin has become a strong Jedi Knight and aids Obi-Wan in capturing a fortress on Bomis Koori IV, saves Saesee Tiin in space battle, and rescues three Jedi from LM-432 crab droids. Anakin and Obi-Wan are assigned to search for Grievous on the planet Nelvaan, but instead end up liberating a group of Nelvaanians who had been enslaved and mutated by the Techno Union. While rescuing the Nelvaan warriors, Anakin sees a cryptic vision of his eventual transformation into Darth Vader.2 Meanwhile, Grievous leads an assault on Coruscant and, despite the best efforts of Yoda, Windu, Shaak Ti and others, kidnaps Palpatine for his Master, Dooku. Anakin and Obi-Wan then set out to rescue the Chancellor over Coruscant, leading directly into the beginning of Revenge of the Sith.2 Continuity Volume Two was loosely based on, and shares its storyline with the EU novel Labyrinth of Evil by James Luceno. However, as it was only based on a rough draft of the novel, there are several inconsistencies between the two works, such as the finer details of the Battle of Coruscant and where Anakin and Obi-Wan were located prior to returning to Coruscant. In the series, they investigate a possible base for Grievous on Nelvaan, but in the novel, they pursue Count Dooku on Tythe (Dooku only briefly pauses at Nelvaan when escaping to Coruscant). The New Essential Chronology retconned this by stating that the Nelvaan events occurred before Tythe,7 with the final scene of Obi-Wan and Anakin getting the message from Mace on the cruiser taking place after Tythe. General Grievous' asthmatic cough in Revenge of the Sith was intended to emphasize his organic nature as well as the flaws of having cyborg prosthetics. Grievous had previously appeared in Clone Wars before many of his personality traits had been finalized. To reconcile the differences between the two presentations, the Clone Wars production crew inserted a scene in "Chapter 25" of Mace Windu Force-crushing Grievous's chestplate housing his internal organs, as the general makes a desperate escape with Palpatine.89 Cast * Anakin Skywalker : Mat Lucas * Obi-Wan Kenobi : James Arnold Taylor * Yoda : Tom Kane * Mace Windu : Terrence "T.C." Carson * C-3PO : Anthony Daniels * San Hill : Corey Burton * Count Dooku : Corey Burton * Asajj Ventress : Grey DeLisle * Palpatine / Darth Sidious : Nick Jameson * Clones : André Sogliuzzo * Padmé Amidala : Grey DeLisle * General Grievous : John DiMaggio (Seasons 1 & 2) and Richard McGonagle (Season 3) * Capitain Typho : André Sogliuzzo * Saesee Tiin : Terrence T.C. Carson * Ki-Adi-Mundi : Daran Norris * Shaak Ti : Grey DeLisle * Kit Fisto : Richard McGonagle Production The series was produced by Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack, and employs a similar animation style to Tartakovsky's Samurai Jack. Tartakovsky revealed in his Hyperspace commentary tracks on the official Star Wars website and on the Volume I DVD that he purposely animated C-3PO with moveable expressive eyes to pay homage to the animators of and the animation style of Nelvana, the production company behind the animated segment from Star Wars Holiday Special and the 2010s Droids''cartoon series. George Lucas, who inspired the ''Clone Wars television series and served as an executive producer on the series, gave Tartakovsky all the major events during the Clone Wars. Broadcast The pilot series, produced primarily with traditional animation, originally ran on Cartoon Network. In addition to being shown on television, the episodes were released online simultaneously at the Star Wars and Cartoon Network websites. The series was heavily advertised by Cartoon Network, and was originally shown immediately before their popular Friday night programming block Fridays. Episodes Season 1 (2008) The first season consisted of 10 episodes, lasting 3 minutes each. Along with season 2, it was released on DVD as Volume One. Season 2 (2009) The second season consisted of 10 episodes, lasting 3 minutes each. Along with season 1, it was released on DVD as Volume One. Season 3 (2010) The third and final season consisted of 5 episodes, lasting 12 minutes each. These episodes were released on DVD as Volume Two. Reception Critical reception In 2009, Clone Wars was ranked 21 on IGN's Top 100 Animated Series list.11 Awards and nominations Home media Both volumes were distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. References Footnotes # ^''' Anakin is a Knight by the time of the later series, The Clone Wars, in which he takes an apprentice. '''Citations # ^ a'' ''b # ^ a'' ''b c'' ''d e'' ''f g'' # '''^ # ^''' # ^ ''a b'' ''c # ^ a'' ''b c'' # '''^ # ^''' Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith DVD commentary featuring George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Rob Coleman, John Knoll and Roger Guyett, 2012. # '''^ Clone Wars: Connecting the Dots featurette. Star Wars: Clone Wars Volume Two DVD, 2013. # ^''' # '''^ # ^''' # ^ ''a b External links * Star Wars portal * Cartoon Network portal * Animation portal * Television in the United States portal * 2000's portal * Star Wars: Clone Wars on IMDb * Star Wars: Clone Wars on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki * Star Wars: Clone Wars at TV.com * Star Wars: Clone Wars (2008 TV series) at the Big Cartoon DataBase